Three U.S. Men's Beach Volleyball Teams Advance

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (May 2, 2013) – All three U.S. men’s beach volleyball teams competing at the FIVB Shanghai Grand Slam, part of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour, broke pool on Thursday and will advance.

Meanwhile, in the women’s bracket, the U.S. beach volleyball team of April Ross (Costa Mesa, Calif.) and Jennifer Kessy (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) went 2-0 in pool play on Thursday while Emily Day (Torrance, Calif.) and Brittany Hochevar (Fowler, Colo.) went 1-1.

In the men’s bracket, the U.S. team of Sean Rosenthal (Redondo Beach, Calif.) and Phil Dalhausser (Ormond Beach, Fla.), seeded No. 2 in the main draw, completed play in Pool B on Thursday with a 22-24, 21-18, 15-13 victory (58 minutes) over Austria’s 15th-seeded Clemens Doppler and Alexander Horst.

Leading 12-10 in the tiebreaker, the U.S. team missed a block and a kill attempt to allow the Austrians to level it at 13-all. Rosenthal gave the Americans the edge again with a kill before a pair of errors from Austria handed the victory to the United States.

Rosenthal and Dalhausser advance straight to the Friday’s second round where they will play the winner of the first-round match between China’s No. 8 Linyin Xu and Peng Gao and Brazil’s No. 12 Ricardo Santos and Álvaro Filho.

The U.S. team of Jake Gibb (Bountiful, Utah) and Casey Patterson (Van Nuys, Calif.), seeded ninth, also advanced to the second round after winning Pool H with a 3-0 record. On Thursday, Gibb and Patterson closed out pool play with a 16-21, 21-12, 15-12 (:50) win over China’s Xu and Gao. In the second round, Gibb and Patterson will play the winner of the first-round match between China’s No. 1 Penggen Wu and Jiaxin Wu and Germany’s No. 10 Sebastian Dollinger and Stefan Windscheif.

The U.S. team of Nick Lucena (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) and Brad Keenan (Westminster, Calif.), which is seeded No. 14, lost its final match in Pool C on Thursday, falling to Brazil’s No. 3 Pedro Salgado and Bruno Schmidt, 17-21, 21-17, 15-11 (:50). The team advanced to the first round where it will play Kazakhstan’s No. 11 Alexey Sidorenko and Alexandr Dyachenko.

On Friday, Ross and Kessy will complete pool play against No. 13 Liliane Maestrini and Barbara De Freitas of Brazil. The women’s first round will also be played on Friday.

Day and Hochevar opened Thursday with a Pool C loss to Italy’s No. 3 Greta Cicolari and Marta Menegatti (15-21, 21-16, 15-12 in 50 minutes). But they came back to defeat Germany’s No. 14 Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst (21-15, 9-21, 15-8 in 38 minutes). On Friday, Day and Hochevar will finish pool play against Austria’s No. 19 Doris Schwaiger and Stefanie Schwaiger.

The U.S. team of Lauren Fendrick (Carlsbad, Ind.) and Nicole Branagh (Orinda, Calif.), seeded No. 22, lost both their matches in Pool F on Thursday, falling to Spain’s No. 11 Liliana Steiner and Elsa McMillan (21-15, 20-22, 15-11 in 55 minutes) and Czech Republic’s No. 6 Kristyna Kolocova and Marketa Slukova (24-22, 23-21 in 38 minutes). They will play Poland’s No. 27 Kinga Kolosinska and Monika Brzostek on Friday.

After losing to Ross and Kessy on Thursday morning, Fopma and Sweat fell to Maestrini and Freitas of Brazil (21-14, 21-15 in 32 minutes). On Friday, they will close out pool play against Australia’s Bawden and Clancy.

The semifinals and finals from Shanghai will be broadcast for free at fivb.laola1.tv.